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It happend to me a couple of times now that I've cross-loaded my carabiner when belaying; the frequent change from slack to tension and back, moving the carabiner up and down and all that, can easily result in such a situation.

There are a few biners adressing this issue by adding a small wire gate lock at the bottom or having a 8-like shape, but I was wondering whether anyone knows a neat trick how to keep it in position so that it won't turn.

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Interesting question - I've never had a problem with this. Must be a combination of factors that I don't understand. – Greg.Ley May 6 '12 at 4:26
Have a look at this question on cross-loading: outdoors.stackexchange.com/q/1384/66 - the 'what not to do' can help indicate what you should do. – Rory Alsop May 6 '12 at 20:47
@Greg.Ley it mostly occurs when I'm attached to a daisy chain (because some gyms require that for whatever reason). When you're belaying 'free' then the tension is almost automatically there, because it feels very weird to have the belay device dangle around on its own. – David May 6 '12 at 22:21
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While cross loading a biner is usually bad news bears, the type of forces and the typical magnitudes that are exerted on the belay biner make it not that big of a deal. Just make sure its stays locked, and make sure its a munter biner and not a standard one, and you should be fine. This is especially true for top-rope belaying (assuming you are top roping in the gym). – crasic May 6 '12 at 23:02
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@crasic it is true that in most/normal circumstances belaying does not produce enough force to break a cross-loaded carabiner, because of things like rope slip through the device, but ropes can jam, and this paper concludes that belay force for a "maximum credible event" is 12 kN. This exceeds the minor-axis-strength of most belay carabiners by a significant margin. "Better safe than sorry" in a game with no do-overs. – Mr.Wizard May 11 '12 at 22:36

2 Answers

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You can largely mitigate the problem by braking to the front and keeping tension on the carabiner throughout by pressing the system away from your body, rather than braking to the side. Nevertheless (as mentioned) these specialized carabiners may add some comfort:

You could also use a carabiner with a high minor axis strength. This carabiner has a rated minor-axis minimum-breaking-strength of 12 kN. According to a paper by Beverly and Attaway this is the "maximum credible event" force on the belay, and is therefore "strong enough."

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Keeping some outward tension on the belay device really helps. If you're toprope belaying you should already be doing this, if you're lead belaying basically keep the climber locked off unless you are feeding slack.

The other important factor is to make sure your belay device is through the belay loop, not the two tie-in points. All harness manufacturers recommend that you belay that way, as it prevents the carabiner from being cross-loaded.

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